Trip Planning with Peggy

My sister, Peggy, arrived midday on Saturday May 26th.  I had BBQ chicken, macaroni salad, baked beans and cold beets for supper. Bread pudding for desert.   Then we spent a couple of hours working on planning our upcoming (October 2012) trip.  We will fly to Albuquerque, travel west along Rt 66/40 into Arizona, go north to Canyon de Chelley and Monument Valley and then up into Utah were we will go to Arches, Capital Reef, Bryce and Zion and then onto Las Vegas for the final two nights and our flight back to Buffalo.

Sunday morning we went to church and then to Penneys so she could look at the dresses.  We had leftovers from the night before for lunch and then got back to our trip planning.    We were concerned about the possibliity that the long stretch in Arizona and Utah that will be National Parks, scenery and red rocks would become monotonous.   Luckily, we found a few ghost towns to visit right after leaving Arches.  One of them looks particularly spectacular: Cisco, Utah.

I prepared Rachael Ray's THANKSGIVING MEATLOAF for Sunday supper, along with apple cider gravy, sweet potatoes and peas.   It turned out great and we finished up the bread pudding for desert, and then worked a bit more on trip plans.

Monday morning (Memorial Day) we worked a bit more on trip plans and looked into flights.  Peggy left a little before 11:30 a.m.

Here are the plans:

October 18th, I will drive to Lockport in time to attend the CARENET BANQUET that evening.
October 20th: fly out early in the morning to Albuquerque.  That  evening we will visit a few places in
                 Albuquerque including a Mexican supermarket and a craft shop.LODGING at the Monterey
                 Non-Smokers Motel on Route 66.
October 21st: meet up with Roch of New Mexico Jeep tours for a three hour jeep tour including a ghost
                 town.  After that, we will do some sightseeing either north or south of Albuquerque and then
                 drive to Grants, NM for lodging.
October 22 head west on Route 66 into Arizona, then go north to the city of Chinle where we will lodge
                at the CHINLE BEST WESTERN
October 23rd: go to Canyon de Chelley and then drive through Monument Valley up to Mexican Hat Utah
              where we will spend the night.
October 24th: drive up to ARCHES and spend the night somewhere in the Moab, Utah area
October 25th: go see CISCO and a couple of other ghost towns east of Moab, then drive to SOMEWHER
              east of Capital Reef National Park.
October 26th: drive through Capital Reef, then south on scenic highway 12 and to BRYCE CANYON
              NATIONAL PARK, lodging in Tropic, Utah that night
October 27th: visit ZION NATIONAL PARK and ghost town of Grafton and drive to either Hurricane
              or St. George for lodging.
October 28th drive to Las Vegas where we will spend the nights ofthe 28th and 29th.
October 30th: fly back to Buffalo.
October 31st I will drive back to Oneonta

Soooooooo, we start out in a big city, do something new and different (the jeep tour) and then spend some time on Route 66, then start the scenic part of our trip in Arizona, then into Utah for national parks (with a break after ARCHES to see a couple of ghosttowns, then the rest of Utah's National Parks and then end up in Las Vegs (another big city).

I am so looking forward to this trip!!!!!

BIBLIOADVENTURE TWO and more: May 21, 2012

I decided to take another batch of old books to the BIBLIOBARN in South Kortright today and I asked Carol M (not to be confused with Carol K) if she wanted to ride along. I met up with her at the library in Oneonta at 9:30 a.m. and we headed out.

On the way there, I noticed two old buildings in Noonans Corners.  This old store

and this old school:  

I did not turn on my navigation system, I tried to rely on my memory of my last drive to S. Kortright, which was a mistake, since I really did not remember well! Anyways, we arrived at the Bibliobarn around 11:00 a.m. 

We quickly went through my books and H.L. found several which he purchased and I donated the rest to the "dime shack". 

Once again H.L. had a few stories to tell including one about how his wife Linda learned to use a pistol after someone broke into their place down south, and when she was attacked, she had an opportunity to use it. He also told about how they were on a vacation driving up to New England to look for a place to relocate and their car broke down in this area, and they fell in love with it and decided to relocate to the S. Kortright area. 

After leaving the Bibliobarn, we drove around and explored a bit.  We went to Sackrider Cemetery (where we ate the lunch I had packed) and then we found another old schoolhouse on Betty Brook Road.    We saw an interesting private residence that appeared to have been an old, small mill.  We were going to go to Stamford to look at the old hotels, but it started to rain, so we decided to head back to Oneonta.  Along the way, we stopped to see this old train depot in Davenport
Center.  

Former Train Depot: Davenport Center, New York, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.


It was a great day!  

Friday Geocaching Adventure

I met up with Leslie at her house this morning so that we could do some geocaching.  The tentative plans had been to go out looking for old cemeteries for my 500 finds milestone cache.  But, she had already taken care of that and she handed me the unpublished cache page when I arrived.  We changed our plans to go to the Edmeston/Pittsfield area to find a bunch of geocaches.  I had already found most of them, all except for two that I expected to find today.

Our first stop was at CEMETERY WITHOUT A NAME just outside of Garrattsville, New York.  This is my geocache, but Leslie had never found it.  The cemetery does have a name, though, and it is Glendhill Cemetery, but I did not know that when I first hid the cache, because there is not a sign.

Along the way, between caches we just happened to find another two very old cemeteries, which we stopped to explore.  My favorite one today is this one:

This cemetery is narrow and deep, with some very old stones, and some very old trees. Notice that while the name in the middle is QUAKER CEMETERY, it has two a/k/a's. WOOLLY HILL CEMETERY and CHASE CEMETERY.  If I am correct, my OTSEGO COUNTY CEMETERIES map lists it as Quaker Cemetery, and it is on the southern border of the Town of Burlington.  Here is a picture of part of the cemetery.  

Not too much further along the way we came to another old cemetery, which was somewhat more maintained than the Quaker Cemetery.  Here is the sign for it: 

Here is one of the many pictures I took at GROSS HILL CEMETERY.

After that, Leslie found a couple more Jeopardy Caches and then we had lunch in Edmeston.  I know I was going to have a large meal (buffet) with Connie, so I only had an ice cream sundae for lunch.  It came from this place (MooMoo's) and it was delicious!  I plan to take my grandkids here this summer.  

Then we headed towards Burlington to look for a few more caches.  I think altogether, Leslie found eight geocaches and I only found one because I had already found the others.  

We made it back to Oneonta with just enough time for me to get to Gerster's to meet Connie.  The buffet tonight was very good even though they did not have a REAL desert, we had to settle for watermelon.  We joked with the waitress, asking her if we could have a substitute desert like APPLE CRISP, and saying that we belong to The Society Against the Early Harvest of Watermelons. It turned out that the watermelon was especially sweet and delicious and we appreciated it!

Leslie did not want to tell me WHERE to go to look for my 500 Finds geocache, the only clue she let out was "go to Sidney".  I have to admit that I cheated and typed in the coords and brought up a map showing where it is!  

Horses, Amish and more ADVENTURE!

I met up with Carol at the Waltzing Horse Farm at 10:30 this morning so that I could take videos of her riding Mystique.  Unfortunately, it was a VERY busy day at the farm, and the "farrier" (the guy who takes care of the horses feet/shoes) was there and Carol's horse had to be taken care of before she could ride, so I was there a couple of hours before Carol rode.

Unfortunately, when I got my camera out to take my first picture of Carol grooming Mystique, I realized that my memory card was falling apart, and I would not be able to take pictures.  While Carol finished groomng, I ran up to New Berlin, hoping that the drugstore had memory cards, but they didn't.    It was interesting watching Howard work on Mystique and another hourses hooves.  Also, the "horse dentist" was there, and I got to watch him work on Lois's horse for a minute or two.

I used Carol's camera and took several videos and lots of pictures. Here is one:  Then she and I met up in New Berlin at

THE COUNTRY KITCHEN, a new diner which opened up a few days ago.  We both had the SENIOR SPECIAL, half a sandwich, bowl of soup, coleslaw and a pickle, for five dollars. Our lunch was reallyl good.  It is a very nice place, very colorful, and some Amish made furniture is on display.

Then we decided to go geocaching (I just happened to have info. with me) and headed out of New Berlin to go to MILLBROOK PARK to find GONE FISHING, which we had looked for unsuccessfully almost four years ago, but we got sidetracked before we got there. .  On the way there, we decided to look for a small nursery that Carol went to last year.  We did find a nursery, where Carol bought some tomato plants.  The owners have a 1929 Ford Model A Touring Car (three window), that they recently purchased.  I asked if I could pay them to take me for a ride and was told that they will do it for free sometime when the nursery is not open!   It turned out that this was NOT the nursery we were looking for.  But , we have their phone number of the owners and hope to call them sometime about taking a ride in the Model A.  .

 We also stopped at a small winery, but nobody answered the door.  Also, we stopped at an Amish farm/sawmill.   Carol asked about purchasing some fence posts, but the Amish guy was not really interested in doing business since he has to start planting corn in a day or two.   Then it was on to the park where GONE FISHING is hidden.  This time we found it quickly and easily.  Carol said "its too easy."

We thought about looking for another cache, but decided against it.  Carol wanted to try to find another Amish sawmill, so we headed for Parker Road.  We saw a few definitely Amish farms and passed one horse and buggy, and a few places looked as if they might sell lumber, but they did not appear to be doing business.  We went to an Amish home that Carol purchased baked goods at a while back, but nobody was home.  We also went to the feed store in New Berlin so Carol could find out more information about an upcoming  pulled pork dinner.

It was a great, and somewhat tiring day!

Dave's Birthday Surprise

My co-workers husband, Dave, turned 44 this past Sunday.  Because it was Mothers Day, their kids kind of ignored his birthday.  Kim set up an impromptu lunch get together for her and Dave and her co-workers (who all know and love him).  We all went to The Golden Guernsey.  The surprise was a specially made sundae brought to the table and we all sang "Happy Birthday".  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera but here is a picture of the Golden Guernsey which I took a couple of weeks ago.    It was a fun lunch!

A BAINBRIDGE Adventure

This morning Terry asked me if I have been to the FrogPond yet this year.  I said no, and then started thinking that maybe I could go this afternoon.  I suggested that to Terry and she agreed.  So, after work, I picked her up at her place in Otego and we headed towards Bainbridge.

I asked Terry where she wanted to eat and she said that someone told her that a new place opened up on Route 7 between Sidney and Bainbridge.  So, we looked for it, but did not see anything.  We decided to eat at the JERICHO INN, but when we got to Bainbridge, we saw that it was closed and for sale.  We decided to eat at Rosa's.

We had a great meal!  As usual, I brought most of my food home with me.  I had eggplant parmigana with spaghetti.   After that we went to PINE RIDGE GROCERY (better known as the Mennonite Store), and I purchased several items.  Then we went to the FROGPOND, where I purchased tomatoes, parsnips and peppers.

When we got back into my car, I looked at the map and told Terry that I was trying to figure out a different route back.  She said she knew a route, so I had her navigate.  It turned out to be nice back roads, coming out by the old foot bridge in Wells Bridge.   It was a nice afternoon.

Backroading, Exploring and a Geocaching Event ADVENTURE!

Morning Dove, a photo by JuneNY on Flickr.

Today was truly an adventurous day!  Leslie and I met up n Laurens and with my CEMETERIES OF OTSEGO COUNTY map in hand, we set out, hoping  to find an old, small cemetery in which she could hide a geocache to celebrate my reaching the milestone of 500 geocaches.

We headed down 205 to Airport Road and attempted to find a cemetery from the map.  NO LUCK.  Then we headed to Mt. Vision and tried for another cemetery or two.  NO LUCK.  We didn't want to be late for Softball's spring event at Neahwa Park in Oneonta, so we quit looking for cemeteries and headed to Brooks house of BBQ so we could pick up our lunch.  Leslie treated me to a checken dinner and a piece of pie, which we took to Neahwa Park with us.

     This is a picture of the LOG for the event!

 and this is one of several pictures I took of the participants in this great event!  That's Mr.Science in the shorts and light blue T-shirt! 

The event was pretty well attended.  Leslie and I seemed to be the only people there who brought lunch!  We socialized and talked about geocaching for over an hour.  Attending the event brought my cache finds up to 500!

Then Leslie and I headed out to continue our search for a small, old cemetery.  This time we headed towards Gilbert Lake, were we continued to use the map and continued to have NO LUCK!  We did eventually find a very small family plot on Potato Farm Road (at the location of the replica of Stonehenge), but it was not a suitable place to hide a geocache, but I did take a few pictures.  Here is one:



Further searching in the Town of Laurens continued to be disappointing.  The strangest thing was that the map shows an absolutely HUGE cemetery right on Brewster Hill Road, but we could not find any trace of it. So once again it was NO LUCK!!!

Before heading back to the convenience store in Laurens to get Leslie's car, we stopped at KNAPP PARK in Laurens to eat our strawberry-rhubarb pie, which was very good! It was neat to see this dove protecting her nest in the rafters of the gazebo.  We were successful in finding the nano geocache hidden in the little park.


It was a great day in spite of our inability to achieve our goal!  My full set of pictures taken today are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157629696732244/